The Klan's Fight for Americanism

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By HIRAM WESLEY EVANS

Imperial Wizard and Emperor, Knighls of (he Ku Ktux

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THE KLANS FIGHT FOR AMERICANISM

BY HIRAM WESLEY EVANS

Imperial Wusrd tad Emptor, KnighU of the Ko Kim KUu

[rftii ou(AonMu« paper on the Ku Klux Klan by the foremost representative
of thai Order will be followed in the next— June-July- August— number of Otis
Review with similarly authentic papers from opposing points of view; contributed
by the Rev- Martin J. Scott, S. J., of the College of St. Francis Xavier; Dr.
W. E. Burgharpt Dubois, of the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People; the Ret. Joseph Silverman, D. D., Rabbi Emeritus of the Temple
Emanu-Et of New York; and Professor Wiluam Stars Myers, of Princeton
University, These papers have been prepared simultaneously with the present
one, so that they are in no sense a reply to it, but are entirely independent con-
siderationa of the some subject; the entire symposium forming a nationally com-
prehensive estimate, pro and contra, of the Ku Klux Klan and its place among
American institutions. In pursuance of Us long-established policy. The Nobtc
American Review gives to these writers the utmost freedom of expression,
leaving them alone responsible for all their statements.— Tat Editors)

The Ku Klux Klan on last Thanksgiving Day passed its tenth
anniversary. In one decade it has made a place and won a record
for achievement which are almost, if not quite, unique in the his-
tory of great popular movements. It has not merely grown from
a handful to a membership of millions, from poverty to riches,
from obscurity to great influence, from fumbling impotence to
the leadership in the greatest cause now before the American
people. All these are important, but not vital.

What is vital is that in these years the Klan has shown a power
to reform and cleanse itself from within, to formulate and vitalize
fundamental instincts into concrete thought and purposeful
action, to meet changing conditions with adaptability but with-
out weakness, to speak for and to lead the common people of
America and, finally, to operate through the application of prac-
tical patriotism to public life with increasing success, and along
the only constructive lines to be found in the present welter of
our national thought.

Cc^yrmh'. b» Ncth Amrricwi CofporUion AD rights ™n»rf.

THE NORTH AMERICAN RKVIEW

By these things the Klan has proved not only its ability to live*
but its right to life and influence. It has already lasted longer
than any similar movement; its tenth birthday finds it stronger
than ever before, with its worst weaknesses conquered or being
eliminated, and so well prepared for the future that it may
fairly be said to stand merely on the threshold of its life and
service.

The greatest achievement so far has been to formulate, focus,
and gain recognition for an idea— the idea of preserving and
developing America 6rst and chiefly for the benefit of the children
of the pioneers who made America, and only and definitely along
the lines of the purpose and spirit of those pioneers. The Klan
cannot claim to have created this idea: it has long been a vague
stirring in the souls of the plain people. But the Klan can fairly
claim to have given it purpose, method, direction and a vehicle.
When the Klan first appeared the nation was in the confusion of
sudden awakening from the lovely dream of the melting pot,
disorganized and helpless before the invasion of aliens and alien
ideas. After ten years of the Klan it is in arms for defense.
This is our great achievement.

The second is more selfish; we have won the leadership in the
movement for Americanism. Except for a few lonesome voices,
almost drowned by the clamor of the alien and the alien-minded
"Liberal", the Klan alone faces the invader. This is not to say
that the Klan has gathered into its membership all who are ready
to fight for America. The Klan is the champion, but it is not
merely an organization. It is an idea, a faith, a purpose, an
organized crusade. No recruit to the cause has ever been really
lost. Though men and women drop from the ranks they remain
with us in purpose, and can be depended on fully in any crisis.
Also, there are many millions who have never joined, but who
think and feel and — when called on — fight with us. This is our
real strength, and no one who ignores it can hope to understand
America today.

Other achievements of these ten years have been the education
of the millions of our own membership in citizenship, the suppres-
sion of much lawlessness and increase of good government wher-
ever we have become strong, the restriction of immigration, and

THE ELAN'S FIGHT FOR AMERICANISM S

the defeat of the Catholic attempt to seize the Democratic party.
All these we have helped, and all are important.

The outstanding proof of both our influence and our service,
however, has been in creating, outside our ranks as well as in
them, not merely the growing national concentration on the prob-
lems of Americanism, but also a growing sentiment against
radicalism, cosmopolitanism, and alienism of all kinds. We
have produced instead a sane and progressive conservatism along
national lines. We have enlisted our racial instincts for the work
of preserving and developing our American traditions and cus-
toms. This was most strikingly shown in the elections last fall,
when the conservative reaction amazed all politicians — especially
the LaFollette rout in the Northwest. This reaction added
enormously to the plurality of the President, the size of which
was the great surprise of the election.

I wish it might fairly he claimed that the Klan from the be-
ginning had this vision of its mission. Instead the beginnings
were groping and futile, as well as feeble; they involved errors
which long prevented any important achievement. The chief
idea of the founders seems to have been merely to start a new
fraternal society, based on rather vague sentiments of brother-
hood among white Americans, and of loyalty to the nation and
to Protestantism. There was also a sentimental reverence for
the Klan of the 'Sixties which led to revival of the old name and
some of the ritual. There was finally the basic idea of white
supremacy, but this was also at the time a mere sentiment, except
as it applied to some Negro unrest.

But along with these ideas there shortly appeared others far
from laudable. The Klan had remained weak, gaining barely
10,000 members in the first few years. Then the possibility of
profit, both in cash and in power, was seen, and soon resulted
in a "selling plan" based partly on Southern affection for the
old Klan, partly on social conditions in the South, but chiefly
on the possibility of inflaming prejudices. They began to "sell
hate at $10 a package".

To us who know the Klan today, its influence, purpose and
future, the fact that it can have grown from such beginnings is
nothing less than a miracle, possible only through one of those

4 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW

mysterious interventions in human affairs which are called Prov-
idence. The fact is, as we see now, that beneath the stupid
or dangerous oratory of those early leaders lay certain funda-
mental truths, quite unseen by them, and then hardly bigger
than the vital germ in a grain of corn, but which matured auto-
matically.

The hate and invisible government ideas, however, were what
gave the Klan its first great growth, enlisted some 100,000 mem-
bers, provided wealth for a few leaders, and brought down upon
the organization the condemnation of most of the country, leaving
it a reputation from which it has not yet recovered. But even
before outside indignation had appeared there began an inside
reaction, caused by abuses and excesses and by the first stirrings
of the purposes which now dominate. Thus began the reform
of the Klan by itself, which gained steadily until it won full
control in 1942. It laid the basis for the astounding growth of
the last three years, and for the present immense influence.

This reform did more than merely rectify the old abuses;
it developed into full life the hidden but vital germs, and released
one of the most irresistible forces in human affairs, the funda-
mental instinct of race pride and loyalty— what Lothrop Stoddard
calls "the imperious urge of superior heredity". Closely asso-
ciated with it are two other instincts vital to success among the
northern races: patriotism, stimulated to unusual activity by the
hyphenism revealed in the World War; and spiritual independ-
ence, a revival of the individualism which sprang up just as the
Nordic races began to assert themselves in their great blossoming
of the last four centuries, and which found its chief expression in
Protestantism. These ideas gave direction and guidance to the
reforms demanded by the rank and file three years ago. They
have been further developed, made more definite and more pur-
poseful, and they are the soul of the Klan today.

The direct reforms brought about were several. First was the
stopping of any exercise of "invisible government". This was
reinforced by a change in the oath, by which all Klansmen are
sworn to uphold legally constituted officers in enforcing the law
at all times. One result of this is to be seen in the decrease of
lawlessness in Klan territory. We can justly claim credit for the

THE KLAN'S FIGHT FOR AMERICANISM 5

remarkable improvement as regards lynching in the last two
years.

The elimination of private profit for officers of the Klan came
next and with it went a democratizing of the order. The Klan,
being chiefly an organized crusade, cannot operate efficiently on a
purely democratic basis, but the autocracy of the early years has
been replaced by a system approximating that of the American
Government in its early years; final power in the hands of the
rank and file, but full power of leadership in the officers they
choose.

Another most important reform was a complete change in the
method of "propagation"— of recruiting and spreading our
gospel. In the early days this had been done very secretively, a
high percentage of money had gone to the kleagles — the "sales
agents " — there had been a high-pressure appeal to sentimentality,
hatred and the invisible government idea, and a tendency to
emphasize numbers rather than quality of recruits. Today,
instead, the evangelistic emphasis is put on Americanism,
Protestant Christianity, and action through government ma-
chinery; an increasing number of the field agents are on salary,
lists of possible members are carefully weeded out before any are
approached, and those found worth while are won by personal
work, backed by open discussion. This has, to be sure, cut down
the number of new members accepted, but has greatly increased
quality and loyalty, and it has brought amazing gains in strength,
particularly in the Mid-West and North.

Most important of all has been the formulation of the true
Klan purposes into definite principles. This has been a gradual
process. We in the lead found ourselves with a following in-
spired in many ways beyond our understanding, with beliefs
and purposes which they themselves only vaguely understood and
could not express, but for the fulfilment of which they depended
on us. We found ourselves, too, at the head of an army with
unguessable influence to produce results for which responsibility
would rest on us— the leaders— but which we had not foreseen
and for which we were not prepared. As the solemn responsi-
bility to give right leadership to these millions, and to make right
use of this influence, was brought home to us, we were compelled

6 THE NORTH AM KMC AN REVIEW

to analyze, put into definite words, and give purpose to these half
conscious impulses.

The Klim. therefore, has now come to speak for the great mass
of Americana of the old pioneer stock. We helieve that it does
fairly and faithfully represent them, and our proof lies in their
supiiort. To understand the Klan, then, it is necessary to under-
stand the character and present mind of the mass of old-stock
Americans. The mass, it must he remembered, as distinguished
from the intellectually mongrelizcd "Liberals".

1 hese an*, in the first place, a blend of various peoples of the so-
called Nordic race, the nice which, with all its faults, has given
I he world almost I he whole of modern civilization. The Klan
docs not try to represent any |H-opIe but these.

There is no need to recount I he virtues of the American pio-
neers: bui it is loo often forgotten that in the pioneer period a
■d«tive process of intense rigor went on. From the first only
hardy, adventurous and strong men and women dared the pioneer
dangers; from among these all but the best died swiftly, so that
the new Nordic blend which became the American race was bred
up to a point probably the highest in history. This remarkable
race character, along with the new-won continent and the new-
CRated nation, made the inheritance of the old-stock Americans
the richest ever given to a generation of men.

In spite of it. however, these Nordic Americans for the last
*-m-rati»i. have found themselves increasingly uncomfortable,
and finally deeply distressed. There appeared first confusion
in thought and opinion, a groping and hesitancy about national
affairs and private lire alike, in sharp contrast to the dear,
straightforward purposes of our earlier years. There was
lutdrty m religion, loo, which was in many ways even more dis-
tressing. I resently we began to find that we were dealing with
Strange ..lens; policies that always sounded well, but somehow
always made us still more uncomfortable.

Finally came the moral breakdown that has been going on for

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>■«• b.nd,„g 'I he sacredness of our Sabbath, of our homes, of
chasfty. n „d fiually even of our rigU to ^ cur '

THE KLAN'S FIGHT FOR AMERICANISM

7

in our own schools fundamental facts and truths were torn
away from us. Those who maintained the old standards did
so only in the face of constant ridicule.

Along with this went economic distress. The assurance for the
future of our children dwindled. We found our great cities and
the control of much of our industry and commerce taken over by
strangers, who stacked the cards of success and prosperity against
us. Shortly they came to dominate our government. The bloc
system by which this was done is now familiar to all. Every
kind of inhabitant except the Americans gathered in groups which
operated as units in politics, under orders of corrupt, self-seeking
and un-American leaders, who both by purchase and threat en-
forced their demands on politicians. Thus it came about that
the interests of Americans were always the last to be considered
by either national or city governments, and that the native
Americans were constantly discriminated against, in business, in
legislation and in administrative government.

So the Nordic American today is a stranger in large parts of the
land his fathers gave him. Moreover, he is a most unwelcome
stranger, one much spit upon, and one to whom even the right
to have his own opinions and to work for his own interests is now
denied with jeers and revilings. "We must Americanize the
Americans," a distinguished immigrant said recently. Can any-
thing more clearly show the state to which the real American
has fallen in this country which was once his own?

Our falling birth rate, the result of all this, is proof of our dis-
tress. We no longer feel that we can be fair to children we bring
into the world, unless we can make sure from the start that they
shall have capital or education or both, so that they need never
compete with those who now 611 the lower rungs of the ladder
of success. We dare no longer risk letting our youth "make its
own way" in the conditions under which we live. So even our
unborn children are being crowded out of their birthright!

All this has been true for years, but it was the World War that
gave us our first hint of the real cause of our troubles, and began
to crystallize our ideas. The war revealed that millions whom
we had allowed to share our heritage and prosperity, and whom
we had assumed had become part of us, were in fact not wholly

8

THK NORTH AMERICAN - REVIEW

so. They had other loyalties: each was willing— anxious! — to
sacrifice the interests of the country that had given him shelter
to the interests of the one he was supposed to have cast off; each
in fact did use the freedom and political power we had given him
against ourselves whenever he could see any profit for his older
loyalty.

This, of course, was chiefly in international affairs, and the
excitement caused by the discovery of disloyalty subsided rapidly
after the war ended. But it was not forgotten by the Nordic
Americans. They had been awakened and alarmed; they began
to suspect that the tayphenism which had been shown was only
a part of what existed; their quiet was not that of renewed sleep,
but of strong men waiting very watchfully. And presently they
began to form decisions about all those aliens who were Americans
for profit only.

They decided that even the crossing of salt water did not dim a
single spot on a leopard; that an alien usually remains an alien
no matter what is done to him. what veneer of education he gets,
what oaths he takes, nor what public attitudes he adopts. They
deeded that the melting pot was a ghastly failure, and remem-
bered that the very name was coined by a member of one of the
inces— the Jews— which most determinedly refuses to melt.
n.ey deeded that in every way, as well as in politics, the alien
m the vast majority of cases is unalterably fixed in his instincts,
character thought and interests by centuries of racial selection
Md development that he thinks first for his own people, works
only with and for them, cares entirely for their interests, considers
hnwdf always one of them, and never an American. They
decided that m character, instincts, thought, and purposes-in
hjs whole soul- an alien remains fixedly alien to America and
all it means.

suV^T?: UH> ' lh " 1 "r"™ WUS tearin * down the American
s andard of hv.ng. especially m the lower walks. It became clear

Ir " 5 ■ V 1™? t>an ° Ut_WOrk Uie nlicn - «"en «» *>
ar umler-bye the American as to force him out of all competetive

tobor So hey came to realise that the Nordic can easily sur-
vive and rule and increase if he holds for himself the advantages
*on by strength and daring of his ancestors in times of strSs

THE KLAN'S FIGHT FOR AMERICANISM

9

and peril, but that if he surrenders those advantages to the peoples
who could not share the stress, he will soon be driven below the
level at which he can exist by their low standards, low living and
fast breeding. And they saw that the low standard aliens of
Eastern and Southern Europe were doing just that thing to us.

They learned, though more slowly, that alien ideas are just
as dangerous to us as the aliens themselves, no matter how plausi-
ble such ideas may sound. With most of the plain people this
conclusion is based simply on the fact that the alien ideas do
not work well for them. Others went deeper and came to under-
stand that the differences in racial background, in breeding,
instinct, character and emotional point of view are more im-
portant than logic* So ideas which may be perfectly healthy
for an alien may also be poisonous for Americans.

Finally they learned the great secret of the propagandists;
that success in corrupting public opinion depends on putting out
the subversive ideas without revealing their source- They came
to suspect that "prejudice" against foreign ideas is really a
protective device of nature against mental food that may be
indigestible* They saw, finally, that the alien leaders in America
act on this theory, and that there is a steady flood of alien ideas
being spread over the country, always carefully disguised as
American.

As they learned all this the Nordic Americans have been grad-
ually Arousing themselves to defend their homes and their own
kind of civilization. They have not known just how to go about
it; the idealist philanthropy and good-natured generosity which
led to the philosophy of the melting pot have died hard- Re-
sistance to the peaceful invasion of the immigrant is no such
simple matter as snatching up weapons and defending frontiers,
nor has it much spectacular emotionalism to draw men to the
colors*

The old-stock Americans are learning, however. They have
begun to arm themselves for this new type of warfare. Most
important, they have broken away from the fetters of the false
ideals and philanthropy which put aliens ahead of their own chil-
dren and their own race.

To do this they have had to reject completely — and perhaps

10 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW

for the moment the rejection is a bit too complete — the whole
body of "Liberal" ideas which they had followed with such simple,
unquestioning faith. The first and immediate cause of the
break wilh Liberalism was that it had provided no defense against
the alien invasion, but instead had excused it — even defended it
against Americanism. Liberalism is today charged in the mind
of most Americans with nothing less than national, racial and
spiritual treason.

But this is only the last of many causes of distrust. The plain
people now see that Liberalism has come completely under the
dominance of weaklings and parasites whose alien "idealism"
reaches its logical peak in the Bolshevist platform of "produce
as little as you can, beg or steal from those wbo do produce,
and kill the producer for thinking he is better than you." Not
that all Lil>eralism goes so far, but it all seems to be on that
road. The average Liberal idea is apparently that those who can
produce should carry the unfit, and let the unfit rule them.

This aberration would have been impossible, of course, if
American liberalism had kept its feet on the ground. Instead it
became wholly academic, lost all touch with the plain people,
disowned its instincts and common sense, and lived in a world
of pure, high, groundless logic.

Worse yet. this became a world without moral standards.
Our forefathers had standards—the Liberals today say they were
narrow! and they had consciences and knew that Liberalism
must be kept within fixed hounds. They knew that tolerance of
things that touch the foundations of the home, of decency, of
patriotism or of race loyalty is not lovely but deadly. Modern
American Liberalism has no such bounds. If it has a conscience
it hides it shamefacedly; if it has any standards it conceals them
well. If it has any convictions— but why be absurd? Its boast
is that it has none except conviction in its own decadent religion
of Liberalism toward everything; toward the right of every man
to make a f.n.l or degenerate of himself and to try to corrupt
others; in the right of any one to pull the foundations from under
the house or [Knson the wells; in the right of children to play with
matches in a powdennill!

The old stock Americans believe in Liberalism, but not in this

Tire KLAN'S FIGHT FOR AMERICANISM 11

thing. It has undermined their Constitution and their national
customs and institutions, it has corrupted the morals of their
children, it has vitiated their thought, it has degenerated and
perverted their education, it has tried to destroy their God*
They want no more of it- They are trying to get back to decency
and common sense.

Hie old stock "plain people" are no longer alone in their
belief as to the nature of the dangers, their causes, and the folly
of Liberal thought. Recently men of great education and mind,
students of wide reputation, have come to see all this as the plain
Americans saw it years before. This was stated by Madison
Grant:

The Nordic rare ... if it takes warning in time, may face the future with
assurance. Fight it must, but let the fight be not a civil war against its own
blood kindred but against the dangerous foreign races, whether Uiey advance
sword in hand or in the more insidious guise of beggars at our gates, pleading
for admittance to share our prosperity. If we continue to allow them to enter
they will in time drive us out of our own land by the mere force of breeding.

The great hope of the future here in America lies in the realization of the
working classes that competition of the Nordic with the alien is fatal whether
the latter be the lowly immigrant from Southern or Eastern Europe, or the
more obviously dangerous Oriental, against whose standards of living the
white man cannot compete- In this country we must look to such of our
people — our farmers ana artisans — as are still of American blood, to recognize
and meet this danger.

Our present condition is the result of following the leadership of idealists
and philanthropic doctnnaireSi

The chief of Mr. Grant's demands, that the un-American alien
be barred out, has already been partly accomplished. It is
established as our national policy by overwhelming vote of Con-
gress, after years of delay won by the aliens already here through
the political power we gave them. The Klan is proud that it was
able to aid this work, which was vital.

But the plain people realize also that merely stopping the alien
flood does not restore Americanism, nor even secure us against
final utter defeat. America must also defend herself against the
enemy within, or we shall be corrupted and conquered by those
to whom we have already given shelter.

The first danger is that we shall be overwhelmed, as Mr. Grant
forecasts, by the aliens' "mere force of breeding". With the
present birthrate, the Nordic stock will have become a hopeless

12 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW

minority within fifty years, and will within two hundred have
been choked to death, like grain among weeds. Unless some
means is found of making the Nordic feel safe in having children,
we are already doomed.

An equal danger is from disunity, so strikingly shown during
the war and from a mongrclization of thought and purpose. It is
not merely foreign policy that is involved; it is all our thought at
home, our morals, education, social conduct— everything. We
are already confused and disunited in every way; the alien groups
themselves, and the skilful alien propaganda, are both tearing
steadily at all that makes for unity in nationhood, or for the
soul of Americanism. If the word "integrity" can still be used
in its original meaning of singleness of purpose or thought, then
we as a nation have lost all integrity. Yet our old American
motto includes the words "... divided we fall!"

One more point about the present attitude of the old stock
American : he has revived and increased his long-standing distrust
of the Roman Catholic Church. It is for this that the native
Americans, and the Klan as their leader, are most often de-
nounced as intolerant and prejudiced. This is not because we
oppose the Catholic more than we do the alien, but because our
enemies recognize that patriotism and race loyalty cannot safely
lie denounced, while our own tradition of religious freedom gives
them an opening here, if they can sufficiently confuse the issue.

The fact Is, of course, that our quarrel with the Catholics is not
religious but political. The Nordic race is, as is well known,
almost entirely Protestant, and there remains in its mental
heritage an anti-Catholic attitude based on lack of sympathy
with the Catholic psychology, on the historic opposition of the
Roman Church to the Nordics' struggle for freedom and achieve-
ment, and on the memories of persecutions. But this strictly
religious prejudice is not now active in America, and so far as I
can learn, never has l>een. I do not know of a single manifesta-
tion in recent times of hostility to any Catholic because of his re-
ligion, nor to the Catholic Church because of its beliefs. Cer-
tainly the American has always granted to the Catholic not only
full religious liberty, without interference or abuse either public
or private, but also every civil, social and political equality.

THE KLAN'S FIGHT FOR AMERICANISM

13

Neither the present day Protestant nor the Klan wishes to change
this in any degree.

The only possible exception to this statement is worth mention-
ing only because some people give it far too much importance.
This has been in the publication of vicious and ignorant anti-
Catholic papers, with small circulation and minute influence.
These publications, by the way, the Klan has denounced and
helped suppress. If the Catholic Church would do as much by
Tolerance and some of the equally vicious and ignorant sheets
published under its tegis, it could come into court against the
American people with cleaner hands.

The real indictment against the Roman Church is that it is,
fundamentally and irredeemably, in its leadership, in politics,
in thought, and largely in membership, actually and actively
alien, un-American and usually an ti- American. The old stock
Americans, with the exception of the few such of Catholic faith —
who are in a class by themselves, standing tragically torn between
their faith and their racial and national patriotism — see in the
Roman Church today the chief leader of alienism, and the most
dangerous alien power with a foothold inside our boundaries.
It is this and nothing else that has revived hostility to Catholi-
cism. By no stretch of the imagination can it fairly be called
religious prejudice, though, now that the hostility has become
active, it does derive some strength from the religious schism.

We Americans see many evidences of Catholic alienism. We
believe that its official position and its dogma, its theocratic
autocracy and its claim to full authority in temporal as well as
spiritual matters, all make it impossible for it as a church, or for
its members if they obey it, to coSpcrate in a free democracy
in which Church and State have been separated. It is true that
in this country the Roman Church speaks very softly on these
points, so that many Catholics do not know them. It is also
true that the Roman priests preach Americanism, subject to
their own conception of Americanism, of course. But the
Roman Church itself makes a point of the divine and unalterable
character of its dogma, it has never seen fit to abandon officially
any of these un-American attitudes, and it still teaches them in
other countries. Until it does renounce them, we cannot believe

14 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW

anything except that they all remain in force, ready to be called
into action whenever feasible, and temporarily hushed up only
for expediency.

The hierarchical government of the Roman Church is equally
at odds with Americanism. The Pope and the whole hierarchy
have been for centuries almost wholly Italian. It is nonsense
to suppose that a man, by entering a church, loses his race or
national loyalties. The Roman Church today, therefore, is
just what its name says — Roman; and it is impossible for its
hierarchy or the policies they dictate to be in real sympathy
with Americanism- Worse, the Italians have proven to be one
of the least assimilable of people. The autocratic nature of the
Catholic Church organization, and its suppression of free con-
science or free decision, need not be discussed; they are unques-
tioned. Thus it is fundamental to the Koinan Church to demand
a supreme loyalty, overshadowing national or raw loyalty, to a
power that is inevitably alien, and which at the best must in-
evitably inculcate ideals un-American if not actively anti-American.

We find, too, that even in America, the majority of the leaders
and of the priests of the Roman Church are either foreign born,
or of foreign parentage and training. They, like other aliens,
are unable to teach Americanism if they wish, because both race
and education prevent their understanding what it is. The
service they give it, even if sincere, can at best produce only
confusion of thought. Who would ask an American, for instance,
to try to teach Italians their own language, history, and pa-
triotism, even without the complication of religion?

Another difficulty is that the Catholic Church here constantly
represents, speaks for and cares for the interests of a large body
of alien peoples. Most immigration of recent years, so un-
assailable and fundamentally un-American, has been Catholic.
The Catholics of American stock have been submerged and al-
most lost; the aliens and their interests dictate all policies of the
Roman Church which are not dictated from Rome itself.

Also, the Roman Church seems to take pains to prevent the
assimilation of these people. Its parochial schools, its foreign
bora priests, the obstacles it places in the way of marriage with
Protestants unless the children are bound in advance to Itoman-

T1IE KLAX'S FIGHT FOR AMERICANISM 15

ism, its persistent use of the foreign languages in church and
school, its habit of grouping aliens together and thus creating
insoluble alien masses — all these things strongly impede Ameri-
canization. Of course they also strengthen and solidify the Catho-
lic Church, and make its work easier, and so are very natural,
but the fact remains that they are hostile to Americanism.

Finally, there is the undeniable fact that the Roman Church
takes an active part in American politics. It has not been con-
tent to accept in good faith the separation of Church and State,
and constantly tries through political means to win advantages
for itself and its people — in other words, to be a political power
in America, as well as a spiritual power. Denials of Catholic
activity in politics are too absurd to need discussion. The
"Catholic vote" is as well recognized a factor as the "dry vote".
All politicians take it for granted.

The facts are that almost everywhere, and especially in the
great industrial centers where the Catholics are strongest, they
vote almost as a unit, under control of leaders of their own faith,
always in support of the interests of the Catholic Church and of
Catholic candidates without regard to other interests, and always
also in support of alienism whenever there is an issue raised.
They vote, in short, not as American citizens, but as aliens and
Catholics! They form the biggest, strongest, most cohesive
of all the alien blocs. On many occasions they form alliances
with other alien Uocs against American interests, as with the
Jews in New York today, and with others in the case of the recent
opposition to immigration restriction. Incidentally they have
been responsible for some of the worst abuses in American politics,
and today are the chief support of such machines as that of Bren-
nan in Chicago, Curley in Boston and Tammany in New York.

All this might occur without direct sanction from the Roman
Church, though that would not make it less a " Catholic" menace.
But the evidence is that the Church acts directly and often con-
trols these activities. The appearance of Roman clergy in
"inside" political councils, the occasional necessity of "seeing"
a prelate to accomplish political results, and above all the fact
that during the fight in the Democratic National Convention of
1924 the hotel lobbies and the corridors of Madison Square

16 TIIE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW ,

Garden were suddenly black with priests, all seem to prove that
the Catholic Church acts in politics as a church, and that it
must bear responsibility for these evils.

Tins is the indictment of the old-stock Americans against the
Roman Church. If at any time it should clear its skirts, should
prove its willingness to become American in America, and to he
politically an equal among equals with other religious bodies,
then Americans would make no indictment of it whatever But
until it does these things it must be opposed as must all other
agencies which stand against America's destiny.

Just a word about the American Catholics, of whom there are a
few hundred thousand only. From the time of the Reformation
on there have always been Catholics (like Lord Howard, who
commanded the English fleet against the Armada, despite the
Pope's bulls) who have put race and national patriotism ahead
of loyally, not to their faith, but to the self-created Roman
hierarchy. There are such in America today, and always have
been. With these the American people have no quarrel what-
ever. They, even the Klan, have supported some of them at the
]K>lls, and will continue to do so.

But these people are not "good Catholics" in the eyes of the
hierarchy. They are really in a tragic situation. They are
pulled on one side by their faith and on the other by the deepest
racial and patriotic instincts. If there should he a crisis they
would Ik- torn between them. They are put into this position
not by their religion but by the autocratic hierarchy which uses
their faith as a weapon to enforce its own pow*er; which demands
not only faith and piety, but subservience, as the price of salva-
tion. What they may do in a crisis no man can forecast, but
whatever it may be, they will deserve nothing but the deepest
sympathy.

This is the general state of mind of the Nordic Americans of the
pioneer stock today. Many of them do not understand the
reasons for their Micfs so fully as I have stated them, but the
state of mind is there beyond doubt, and the reasons are true at all
vital point*. It is inevitable that these people are now in revolt.
This is the movement to which the Klan, more through Provi-
dence than its own wisdom, has begun to give leadership.

THE KLAN'S FIGHT FOR AMERICANISM 17

The Ku Klux Klan, in short, is an organization which gives
expression, direction and purpose to the most vital instincts,
hopes and resentments of the old stock Americans, provides
them with leadership, and is enlisting and preparing them for
militant, constructive action toward fulfilling their racial and
national destiny. Madison Grant summed up in a single sen-
tence the grievances, purpose and type of membership of the
Klan: "Our farmers and artisans ... of American blood, to
recognize and meet this danger." The Klan literally is once
more the embattled American farmer and artisan, coordinated
into a disciplined and growing army, and launched upon a definite
crusade for Americanism!

This Providential history of the Klan, and the Providential
place it has come to hold, give it certain definite characteristics.
The disadvantages that go with them, as well as the advantages,
may as well be admitted at once.

We are a movement of the plain people, very weak in the
matter of culture, intellectual support, and trained leadership.
We are demanding, and we expect to win, a return of power into
the hands of the everyday, not highly cultured, not overly
intellectuahzed, but entirely unspoiled and not de-Americanized,
average citizen of the old stock. Our members and leaders are
all of this class— the opposition of the intellectuals and liberals
who held the leadership, betrayed Americanism, and from whom
we expect to wrest control, is almost automatic.

This is undoubtedly a weakness. It lays us open to the charge
of being "hicks" and "rubes" and "drivers of second hand
Fords". We admit it. Far worse, it makes it hard for us to
state our case and advocate our crusade in the most effective
way, for most of us lack skUl in language. Worst of all, the need
of trained leaders constantly hampers our progress and leads to
serious blunders and internal troubles. If the Klan ever should
fail it would be from this cause. All this we on the inside know
far better than our critics, and regret more. Our leadership is
improving, but for many years the Klan will be seeking better
leaders, and the leaders praying for greater wisdom.

Serious as this is, and strange though our attitude may seem
to the intellectuals, it does not worry us greatly. Every popular

18 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW

movement has suffered from just this handicap, yet the popular
movements have l>een the mainsprings of progress, and have
usually had to win against the "best people" of their time.
Moreover, we can depend on getting this intellectual backing
shortly. It is notable that when the plain people begin to win
with one of their movements, such as the Klan, the very intel-
lectuals who have scoffed ami fought most bitterly presently
begin to dig up sound— at least well-sounding!— logic in support
of the success. The movement, so far as can be judged, is
neither hurt nor helped by this process.

Another weakness is that we have not been able, as yet, to
bring home to the whole membership the need of continuous work
on organization programmes both local and national. They are
too prone to work only at times of crisis and excitement , and then
to feel they can let down. Partly, of course, this is inherent in
the evangelistic quality of our crusade. It is "strong medicine",
highly emotional, and presently brings on a period of reaction
and lethargy. All crusaders and evangelists know this: the
whole country saw it after the war. The Klan will not be fully
entrenched till it has passed this reaction period, and steadied
down for the long pull. That time is only beginning for most of
the Klan, which really is hardly three years old.

Hut we have no fear of the outcome. Since we indulge our-
selves in convictions, we are not frightened by our weaknesses.
We hold the conviction that right will win if backed with vigor
and consecration. We are increasing our consecration and
learning to make better use of our vigor. We are sure of the
fundamental Tightness of our cause, as it concerns both ourselves
ami the progress of the world. We believe that there can be no
question of the right of the children of the men who made Amer-
ica to own and control America. We believe that when we
allowed others to share our heritage, it was by our own generosity
and by no right of theirs. We believe that therefore we have
every right to protect ourselves when we find that they are
betraying our trust and endangering us. We believe, in short, that
we have the right to make America American and for Americans.

We believe also that only through this kind of a nation, and
through development along these lines, can we best serve Amer-

THE KLAN'S FIGHT FOR AMERICANISM 19

ica, the whole world today, and the greater world yet unborn.
We believe the hand of God was in the creation of the American
stock and nation. We believe, too, in the right and duty of
every man to 6ght for himself, his own children, his own nation
and race. We believe in the parable of the talents, and mean
to keep and use those entrusted to us — the race, spirit and nation-
hood of America!

Finally we believe in the vitality and driving power of our
race: a faith based on the record of the Nordics throughout all
history, and especially in America. 3. P. Morgan had a motto
which said, in effect, '"Never bet against the future of America."
We believe it is equally unsafe to l>et against the future of any
stock of the Nordic race, especially so finely blended and highly
bred a stock as that of the sons of the pioneers. Handicaps,
weaknesses, enemies and all, we will win !

Our critics have accused us of being merely a "protest move-
ment", of being frightened; they say we fear alien competition,
are in a panic because we cannot hold our own against the
foreigners. That is partly true. We are a protest movement —
protesting against being robbed. We are afraid of competition
with peoples who would destroy our standard of living. We are
suffering in many ways, we have been betrayed by our trusted
leaders, we are half beaten already. But we are not frightened
nor in a panic. We have merely awakened to the fact that we
must fight for our own. We are going to fight— and win!

The Klan does not believe that the fact that it is emotional
and instinctive, rather than coldly intellectual, is a weakness.
All action comes from emotion, rather than from ratiocination.
Our emotions and the instincts on which they are based have
been bred into us for thousands of years; far longer than reason
has had a place in the human brain. They are the many-times
distilled product of experience; they still operate much more
surely and promptly than reason can. For centuries those who
obeyed them have lived and carried on the race; those in whom
they were weak, or who failed to obey, have died. They are
the foundations of our American civilization, even more than our
great historic documents; they can be trusted where the fine-
haired reasoning of the denatured intellectuals cannot.

THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW

Thus the Klan goes back to the American racial instincts,
and to the common sense which is their first product, as the basis
of its beliefs and methods. The fundamentals of our thought
are convictions, not mere opinions. We are pleased that modern
research is finding scientific backing for these convictions. We
do not need them ourselves; we know that we are right in the
same sense that a good Christian knows that he has been saved
and that Christ lives—a thing which the intellectual can never
understand. These convictions are no more to be argued about
than is our love for our children; we are merely willing to state
them for the enlightenment and conversion of others.

There are three of these great racial instincts, vital elements
in both the historic and the present attempts to build an America
which shall fulfill the aspirations and justify the heroism of the
men who made the nation. These are the instincts of loyalty
to the white race, to the traditions of America, and to the spirit
of Protestantism, which has been an essential part of American-
ism ever since the days of Roanoke and Plymouth Rock. They
are condensed into the Klan slogan: "Native, white, Protestant
supremacy."

First in the Klansman's mind is patriotism— America for
Americans. He believes religiously that a betrayal of American-
ism or the American race Is treason to the most sacred of trusts,
a trust from his fathers and a trust from God. He believes, too,
that Americanism can only be achieved if the pioneer stock is
kept pure. There is more than race pride in this. Mongreliza-
lion has been proven bad. It is only between closely related
stocks of the same race that interbreeding has improved men;
the kind of interbreeding that went on in the early days of Amer-
ica between English, Dutch, German, Hugenot, Irish and Scotch.

Racial integrity is a very definite thing to the Klansman. It
means even more than good citizenship, for a man may be in
all ways a good citizen and yet a poor American, unless he has
ra»-ial understanding of Americanism, and instinctive loyalty to
it. It is in no way a reflection on any man to say that he is un-
American; it is merely a statement that he is not one of us. It
Is often not even wise to try to make an American of the best of
aliens. What he is may be ipoiled without his becoming Ameri-

THE KLAN'S FIGHT FOR AMERICANISM

The races and stocks of men are as distinct as bree<ls of
animals, and every boy knows that if one tries to train a bulldog
to herd sheep, he has in the end neither a good bulldog nor a good
collie.

Americanism, to the Klansman, is a thing of the spirit, a pur-
pose and a point of view, that can only come through instinctive
racial understanding. It has, to be sure, certain defined prin-
ciples, but he does not believe that many aliens understand
those principles, even when they use our words in talking about
them. Democracy is one, fairdealing, impartial justice, equal
opportunity, religious liberty, independencc,self-reliance,courage,
endurance, acceptance of individual responsibility as well as
individual rewards for effort, willingness to sacrifice for the good
of his family, bis nation and his race before anything else but
God, dependence on enlightened conscience for guidance, the
right to unhampered development— these are fundamental.
But within the bounds they fix there must be the utmost free-
dom, tolerance, liberalism. In short, the Klansman believes
in the greatest possible diversity and individualism within the
limits of the American spirit. But he believes also that few
aliens can understand that spirit, that fewer try to, and that there
must be resistance, intolerance even, toward anything that
threatens it, or the fundamental national unity based upon it.

The second word in the Klansman's trilogy is "white". The
white race must be supreme, not only in America but in the world.
This is equally undebatable, except on the ground that the races
might live together, each with full regard for the rights and inter-
ests of others, and that those rights and interests would never
conflict. Such an idea, of course, is absurd; the colored races
today, such as Japan, are clamoring not for equality but for their
supremacy. The whole history of the world, on its broader lines,
has been one of race conflicts, wars, subjugation or extinction.
This is not pretty, and certainly disagrees with the maudlin
theories of cosmopolitanism, but it is truth. The world has been
so made that each race must fight for its life, must conquer, ac-
cept slavery or die. The Klansman believes that the whites will
not become slaves, and he does not intend to die before his time.
Moreover, the future of progress and civilization depends on the

« THE NOKTH AMEHK'AN REVIEW

continued supremacy of the white nice. The forward movement
of the world for centuries has come entirely from it. Other races
each had its chance and either failed or stuck fast, while white
civilization shows no sign of having reached its limit. Until the
whites falter, or some colored civilization has a miracle of awaken-
ing, then? is not a single colored stock that can claim even equality
with the white; much less supremacy.

The thin! of the Klan principles is that Protestantism must be
supreme; that Home shall not rule America. The Klansman
Iwlicves this not merely because he is a Protestant, nor even be-
cause the Colonies that are now our nation were settled for the
purpose of wresting America from the control of Koine and estab-
lishing a land of free conscience. He Mieves it also because
Protestantism is an essenlial part of Americanism; without it
America could never have been created and without it she cannot
go forward. Roman rule would kill it.

Protestantism contains more than religion. It is the expres-
sion in religion of the same spirit of inde|>endcnce, self-reliance
and freedom which are the highest achievements of the Nordic
race. It sprang into being automatically at the time of the
great " upsurgence " of strength in t he Nordic peoples that opened
the spurt of civilization in the fifteenth century. It has t>ecn a
distinctly Nordic religion, and it has Ik-cii through this religion
that the Nordics have found strength to take leadership of all
whites and the supremacy of the earth. Its destruction is the
deepest purpose of all other peoples, as (hat would mean the end
of Nordic rule.

It is the only religion tlmt permits the unliampeied individual
development and the unhampered conscience and action which
were necessary in the settling of America. Our pioneers were all
Protestants, except for an occasional Irishman— Protestants by
nature if not by religion -for though French and Spanish dared
and explored and showed great heroism, they made little of the
land their own. America was Protestant from birth.

She must remain Protestant, if the Nordic stock is to finish its
destiny. He of the old stock Americans could not work— and
the work is mostly ours to do, if the record of the past proves any-
thing—if we become priest-ridden, if we had to submit our con-

THE K LAN'S FIGHT FOR AMERICANISM 23

sciences and limit our activities and suppress our thoughts at the
command of any man, much less of a man sitting upon Seven
Hills thousands of miles away. This we will not permit. Rome
shall not rule us. Protestantism must be supreme.

Let it be clear what is meant by "supremacy". It is nothing
more than power of control, under just laws. It is not imperial-
ism, far less is it autocracy or even aristocracy of a race or stock of
men. What it does mean is that we insist on our inherited right
to insure our own safety, individually and as a race, to secure
the future of our children, to maintain and develop our racial
heritage in our own, while, Protestant, American way, without
interference.

Just how we of the Klan will accomplish this we do not yet
know. Our first task has been to organize and this is not yet
quite accomplished. But already we are beginning our second
stage, which is to meet, stop and remove the invader and leave
ourselves free once more. In the strict sense wchaveno programme.
We are not ready for one and have not put our minds to it. No
such popular movement ever springs full-panoplied from the
head of any man or group. For some time we must be oppor-
tunists, meeting the enemy wherever he attacks and attacking
where we can. This course, so far, has accomplished much more
than could have been done by a hard and fast programme. We
expect to continue it.

There are, however, certain general principles and purposes
which are always kept in view. Enough has been said about
pioneer Americanism. Another constant aim is better citizen-
ship. The Klan holds that no man can be either a good Klans-
man or a good American without being a good citizen. A large
part of our work is to preach this, and no man can be a Klansman
long without feeling it.

Another constant objective is good government, locally and
nationally. The Klansman is pledged to support law and order,
and it is also a part of his duty to see that both law and officers
are as good as possible. We believe that every man and woman
should keep well-informed on all public matters, and take an
active and direct part in all public affairs. There is nothing
spectacular about this; it is merely good citizenship on the job.

*4 THE NORTH AMKU1CAX liKYIKW

Tin- Klim, however, never attempts lo dictate the votes of its
members, but does furnish information about men ami measures.

In the National Government our interest is along the same lines,
with special emphasis on anti-alien and pro-American legislation.
Also, far more than in local affairs, we take pains to support
men who understand ami an- loyal t<> (he best American tradi-
tions. Apart from that the Klan lakes no interest ill any govern-
ment mailers except those having a direct bearing on decency
anil honesty.

We take great pains in all these matters never to he made use
of— at lens! not twice!- I>y any man. party or faction. We have
no political interests except Americanism, and do not belong in
or with any parly or faction. We do support a certain American
type «>f man. and will support any group which draws the right
kind of an issue, [f there is no such issue, and no choice hctween
candidates from the American point of view, we keep out. It is
true thai some men have been able to make use of the Klan once,
but it lias always reacted against them.

It is inevitable that most of the active work of the Klan,
outside our own ranks, should In- in public affairs. By no other
means can most of our demands be accomplished. And it is
against this patriotic activity that the most violent criticisms
have been made. We are accused of injecting old prejudices,
hatred, race and religion into politics, of creating an un-American
class division, of trying to profit by race and religious enmities,
of violating the principle of equality, and of mining the Demo-
cratic parly.

Most »f these charges arc not worth answering. So long as
politicians cater to alien racial and religious groups, it is the
merest self-defense to have also a Protestant and an American
"vote" and to make it respected. The hatred and prejudice are,
as has U-en evident to every candid person, displayed by our
enemies and not by us.

As to the charge that the Klan brought race and religion into
politics, that simply is not true. That was done by the very
people who an- now accusing us. because we are cutting into the
profits they had U-en making in politics out of their races and
Ihrir religions. Race ami religion have for years been used by

THE KLAN'S FIGHT FOR AMERICANISM 25

the aliens as political platforms. The Klan is in no way responsi-
ble for this condition. We merely recognized it when others
dared not, and we fight it in the open. Our belief is that any
man who runs for office or asks political favors, or advocates
policies or carries on any other political activity, either as a
member of any racial or religious group, or in the interests of or
under orders from such a group or of any non-American interest
whatever, should be opposed for that very reason. The Man's
ambition is to get race and religion out of politics, and that can-
not be done so long as there is any profit in exploiting them. It
therefore fights every attempt to use them.

This vicious kind of politics has mostly been more or less
secret. We of the Klan wish we could claim credit for bringing
the scandal into the open, but we cannot even do that. The
open issue was raised for the first time on a national scale at the
Democratic National Convention of 1924. This was the doing
of the Catholic politicians, who seized upon Catholicism as a
cement for holding the anti-McAdoo forces together. The
bitter cleavage that followed was inevitable, and it was they—
the Catholic leaders— who so nearly wrecked the party and were
quite ready to wreck it completely if that would have helped their

local Catholic machines.

One of the Klan's chief interests is in education. W« believe
that it is the duty of government to insure to every child oppor-
tunity to develop its natural abilities to their utmost. We wish
to go to the very limit in the improvement of the public schools;
so far that there will 1« no excuse except snobbery for the private

*

schools.

Further, the Klan wishes to restore the Bible to the school, not
only because it is part of the world's great heritage in literature
and philosophy and has profoundly influenced all white civiliza-
tion, but because it is the basis on which all Christian religions
are built, and to which they must look for their authority. The
Klan believes in the right of each child to pass for itself on the
ultimate authority behind the creed he is asked to adopt; it be-
lieves in preserving to all children their right to religious volition,
to full freedom of choice. This is impossible if they are barred
from the Bible. We oppose any means by which any priesthood

2« THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW

keeps iis hold on power by suppressing hiding or garbling the
Fundamental Christian revelation.

This is one of the reasons for the Klan 'a objection to parochial
schools of any church. They very readily become mere agencies
of propaganda. Another reason is that in many Ihe teaching is in
the hands or aliens, who cannot possibly understand Americanism
or train Americans to citizenship. In many, even, the textbooks
have been so perverted that Americanism is falsified, distorted
and betrayed. The Klan would like to see all such schools
closed. If they cannot U- abolished, the Klan aims to bring them
under control of the State, so as to eliminate these evils, insure
religious volition, and enforce the teaching of true Americanism.

Tltt, then, is the mental attitude, the purpose and the plan of

the Man today, and it is against this position of ours, and against
nothing else, thai charges of bigotry, narrowness, intolerance and
prejudice can fairly be brought . < barges made on other grounds
need not be discussed, but we of the Klan are prepared lo admit
that some of these charges .ire at least partly justified.

This does not mean merely that there are "bigots and fanatics "
among us. I hen- certainly arc; we are weeding them out, hut we
have some left, and others will join in spite of our utmost care.
The fault u serious but not fatal. Every such movement has
them, as Itooscvelt found when he dubbed the similar nuisances in
his own movement "the lunatic fringe ".

Nor does this mean, either, an admission of the charges of those
who deny to Americans the right-which every alien claims and
uses to speak his mind freely ami criticize things about him
Jews or Catholics are lavish with their caustic criticism of any-
thing American. Nothing is immune; our great men. our his-
toric struggles and sacrifices, our customs and persona] traits, our
I uritan consciences" -all have been scarified without mercy
\et the least crituism of these same vitriolic critics or of their
people brings howls of "anti-Semitic" or "anti-Catholic" We
of the Klan |«.y no attention to tho.se who argue with epithets
only. They thereby admit their weakness. And we are still
waiting for some one to try to answer us with fads and reasons
Aside from these things, however, we of the Klan admit that we
are intolerant and narrow in a certain sense. We do not think our

THE KLAN'S FIGHT FOR AMKIUCANISM 27

intolerance is so serious as that of our enemies. It is not an intol-
erance that tries to prevent free speech or free assembly. The
Klan lias never broken up a meeting, nor tried to drive a speaker
to cover, nor started a riot, nor attacked a procession or parade,
nor murdered men for belonging to the Knights of Columbus or

the B'nai B'rith.

And we deny that either bigotry or prejudice enters into our
intolerance or our narrowness. We are intolerant of every*! 1 " 1 !?
that strikes at the foundations of our race, our country or our
freedom of worship. We are narrowly opposed to the use of
anything alien— race, loyalty to any foreign power or to any
religion whatever— as a means to win political power- We arc
prejudiced against any attempt to use the privileges and op-
portunities which aliens hold only through our generosity as levers
to force us to change our civilization* to wrest from us control
of our own country, to exploit us for the benefit of any foreign
power — religious or secular — and especially to use America as
a tool or cats-paw for the advantage of any side in the hatreds
and quarrels of the Old World. This is our intolerance; based
on the sound instincts which have saved us many times from the
follies of the intellectuals. We admit it. More and worse, we
are proud of it.

But this is all of our intolerance. We do not wish harm to any
man, even to those we fight. We have no desire to abuse, en-
slave, exploit, or deny any legal political or social right to any
man of any religion, race or color. We grant them full freedom —
except freedom to destroy our own freedom and ourselves. In
many ways we honor and respect them. Kveiy race has many
fine and admirable traits, each has made notable achievements.
There is much for us to learn from each of them. But wc do
insist that we may learn what we choose, and what will l>est fit
the peculiar genius of our own race, rather than have them choose
our lessons for us, and then nun them down our throats.

The attitude of the Klan toward outsiders is derived logically
from these l>eliefs. From all Americans except the racial and
spiritual expatriates we expect eventual support. Of the
expatriates nothing can be hoped. They are men without a
country and proud of it.

88

THK NORTH AMERICAN RKVIKW

The Negro, the Klan considers a special duly and problem of
the while American, He is among us through no wish of his;
wc owe il lo hint and to ourselves to give him full protection and
opportunity. But his limitations are evident ; we will not permit
him lo gain sufficient power to control our civilization. Neither
will we delude him with promises of social equality which we
know can never I* realised. The Klan looks forward to the day
when the Negro problem will have liecn solved on some much
saner basis than miscegenation, and when every Stale will enforce
laws making any sex relations between a white and a colored
person a crime.

For the alien in general we have sympathy. op|mrt unity, jus-
tice, hut no permanent welcome unless he Iteeomcs truly Ameri-
can. Il is our duly lo sec that he has every chance for this, and
we shall he glad lo accept him if he floes. We hold no rancor
against hint; his race, instincts, training, mentality and whole
outlook of life are usually widely different from ours. Wc cannot
bfaune him if he adheres to them and attempts to convert us to
them, even by tone. But we must see that he can never succeed.

The Jew is a more complex problem. His ahilities are great,
he contributes much lo any i-ountry where he lives. This is par-
tmuariytrueofUic Western Jew, those of thcslocks we haveknown
so long. Their separation from us is more religious than racial.
When freed from |Krsccution the* Jews have shown a tendency
to disintegrate and amalgamate. We may hope that shortly, in
the free atmosphere of America. Jews of this class will cease to be
a problem. Quite different are the Kastern Jews of recent immi-
gration, the Jews known as the Askhenasim. It is interesting
to note thai anthropologists now tell us that these are not true
Jews, but only Judaizcd Mongols— < 'bazars. These, unlike the
true Hebrew, show a divergence from the American type so great
that there seems little hope of their assimilation.

The most menacing and most difficult problem facing America
today Is this of the |HTinanently uiiassimilable alien. The only-
solution so far offered is that of Dr. Eliot, president emeritus of
Harvard. After admitting thai the melting \hA has failed— thus
supporting the primary position of the Klan!— he adds that there
is no hope of creating here a single, homogeneous race-stock of

THE KLAN'S FIGHT FOR AMERICANISM «9

the kind necessary for national unity. He then suggests that,
instead, there shall be a congeries of diverse peoples, living to-
gether in sweet harmony, and all working for the good of all and of
the nation! This solution is on a par with the optimism which
foisted the melting pot on us. Diverse races never have lived
together in such harmony; race antipathies are too deep and
strong. If such a state were possible, the nation would be too
disunited for progress. One race always ruled, one always must,
and there will be struggle and reprisals till the mastery is estab-
lished—and bitterness afterwards. And, speaking for us Ameri-
cans, we have come to realize that if all this could possibly be
done, still within a few years we should l>e supplanted by the
"mere force of breeding" of the low standard peoples. We in-
tend to see that the American stock remains supreme.

This is a problem which must shortly engage the best American
minds. We can neither expel, exterminate nor enslave these
low-standard aliens, yet their continued presence on the present
basis means our doom. Those who know the American character
know that if the problem is not soon solved by wisdom, it will be
solved by one of those cataclysmic outbursts which have so often
disgraced — and saved! — the race. Our attempt to find a sane
solution is one of the best justifications of the Klan's existence.

Toward the Catholic as an individual the Klan has no "atti-
tude" whatever. His religion is none of our business. But
toward the Catholic Church as a political organization, and to-
ward the individual Catholic who serves it as such, we have a
definite intolerance. We are intolerant of the refusal of the
Roman Church to accept equality in a democracy, and resent its
attempts to use clerical power in our politics. We resent, too,
the subservience of members who follow clerical commands
in politics. We are intolerant, also, of the efforts of the Roman
Church to prevent the assimilation of immigrant members. We
demand that in politics and in education the Roman Church
abandon its clutching after special and un-American privileges,
and that it t>ecome content to depend for its strength on the truth
of its teachings and the spiritual power of its leaders. Further
than this we ask nothing. We admit that this is intolerant; we
deny that it is cither bigoted or unjust.

so

TIIK NORTH AMKRICWX REVIEW

The Khui today, because of the position it has come to fill, is
by far the strongest movement recorded for the defense and ful-
fillment of Americanism. It has a membership of millions, the
Support of millions more. If there he any truth in the statement
that the voice of the people is the voice of God, then we hold a
Divine commission. Our finances an 1 sound as they have been
for years; we iiermit no tfreat accumulation, but have reduced our
fees when we found them producing more than enough to carry
on our crusade.

Our ritual is still incomplete. We have l>een too busy petting
our army into shape and our enisnde started, to perfect the higher
decrees, but this is heiiig done. Our first, and so far only
largely used degree, inculcates and symbolizes loyalty — to
America, In Protestantism, to law and order and to the Klan.
The second, jtisl mining into um\ emphasizes patriotism. The
third will center around Protestantism* and the fourth and last
around race pride, loyally mid responsibility. It may be added
that members of other orders who have seen such ritualism as
we already use. n^ree that it is uncxcclU-d in solemnity, dignity
and beaut v*

Br

One of the outstanding principles of the Klan is secrecy. We
have 1 KTn much criticized for it, ami accused of cowardice,
though how any sane person can allege cowardice against men
who stood unarmed while rioters beat and shot them down, as
Klansmen were beaten and shot at Carnegie and other places,
we cannot understand. Our secrecy is, in fact, necessary for
our protection so long as the hitter intolerance and fanatic perse-
cution lasts. Until the Klan becomes strong in a community,
individual members have often found themselves in danger
of loss of work, business, pruiierty ami even life. There is also
the advantage in secrecy that it gives us greater driving force,
since our enemies are handicapped in not knowing just what,
where or how great is the strength we can exert.

Both these reasons for secrecy will grow less in time, but it can
safely he predicted that the Klan will never officially abandon its
secrecy. The mask, by the way, is not a part of our secrecy at
all. but of our ritual, and can never be abandoned. The personal
secrecy occasionally disapj>ears, as the Klan gains strength,

THE [CLAN'S FIGHT FOR AMERICANISM SI

from the zeal of member? who wish to work openly, whereby the
Klan can be seen emerging as Masonry did a century

One more charge against the Klan is worth noting: that we are
trying to cure prejudice by using new and stronger prejudice, to
end disunity by setting up new barriers, to speed Americaniza-
tion by discriminations and issues which arc un-American. This
is a plausible charge, if the facts alleged were true, for it is certain
that prejudice is no cure for prejudice, nor can we hope to pro-
mote Americanism by violating its principles.

Hut the Klan does not stimulate prejudice, nor has it raise*!
race or religious issues, nor violated the spirit of Americanism in
any way. We simply recognize facts, and meet the situation
they reveal, as it must be met. Non-resistance to the alien in-
vasion, and ostrich-like optimism have already brought us to the
verge of ruin. The time has come for positive action. The Klan
is open to the same charge of creating discord that lies against
any people w r ho, under outside attack, finally begin resistance
when injuries have Income intolerable — 'it is blaniable to that
extent, but no more. There can be no hope of curing our evils so
long as it is possible for leaders of alien groups to profit by them,
and by preventing assimilation. Our first duty is to see to it
that no man may grow rich or powerful by breeding and exploit-
ing disloyalty.

The future of the Klan we believe in, though it is still in the
hands of God and of our own abilities and consecration as in-
dividuals and as a race. Previous movements of the kind
have been short-lived, killed by internal jealousies and personal
ambitions, and partly, too, by partial accomplishment of their
purposes. If the Klan falls away from its mission, or fails in it,
perhaps even if it succeeds — certainly whenever the time comes
that it is not doing needed work — it will become a mere derelict,
without purpose or force. If it fulfills its mission, its future
power and service are beyond calculation so long as America has
any part of her destiny unfulfilled. Meantime we of the Klan
will continue, as l>cst we know and as best we can, the crusade for
Americanism to which we have been providentially called.

Hiram Wesley Evans.